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Category Archives: ALBUM REVIEWS
Album review: H.I.M. – Tears On Tape
Cooking Vinyl His Infernal Majesty aren’t the sort of band to go reinventing themselves for every album, and Tears On Tape pretty much follows the usual musical formula found in some of their older records, but Ville Valo and co. … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Cooking Vinyl, H.I.M., metal, review, rock, Tears On Tape
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Album review: KINGDOM COME – Outlier
SPV www.spv.de [Release date: 29.04.13] Kingdom Come’s new “Outlier” album could more accurately be credited as a Lenny Wolf solo effort as the band’s main man handles everything bar the guitar solos, these being provided by Eric Forster. Wolf also … Continue reading
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Tagged album, hard rock, Kingdom Come, Lenny Wolf, Outlier, review
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Album review: TOM KEIFER – The Way Life Goes
Merovee Records [Release date 29.04.13] For me, Cinderella always stood head and shoulders above the general hair metal bands that they would unfairly be lumped in with. With grittier songs, real feeling subject material and a more mature outlook the … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Cinderella, review, rock, The Way Life Goes, TOM KEIFER
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Quick plays: KILL FOR EDEN, CIRCA, MELINDA ORTNER
KILL FOR EDEN – S/T www.killforeden.com Interestingly, anyone I have mentioned West London band Kill For Eden to has enthusiastically told me how good they are and the general feeling is that their debut, and self titled, album should do … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Billy Sherwood, Circa, Kill For Eden, MELINDA ORTNER, review, rock, Tony Kaye, Yes
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Album review: TIME GRID – Life
Open Your Eyes Records [Release date: 21.01.13] Time Grid is French/Swiss prog metal band who have taken nearly a decade to realise their musical vision. ‘Life’ is by no means an unblemished slice of prog metal, but … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged Franco Swiss rock, keyboards, King Crimson, Laetitia Fontannaz, Life, Mathias Reusser, metal, Procol Harum, prog metal, progressive, Remi Pussier, review, rock, Steve Huber, synths, Time Grid
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Album review: CHASING VIOLETS – Jade Hearts
AOR Records [Release date 14.06.13] I think producer Frederic Slama compromised Chasing Violets’ debut album ‘Outside Heaven’ (2012) by re-using the songs (and the backing tracks) for his own project album ‘LA Temptation’. Slama is a respected LA-based AOR mover … Continue reading
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Tagged album, AOR, Chasing Violets, Fontaine, Frederic Slama, Goran Edman, Jade Hearts, Melissa, melodic, Paul Sabu, review, rock, Sarah, Tommy Denander
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Album review: CTHULHU RISE – 42
Musea Records This incredible heavy but inventive album may sometimes border on the cacophonous as it blasts away the cobwebs of complacency with monumental fractured riffs, but the underlying fast changing time signatures, unrelenting metal dirge (sludge metal anybody?) and … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts), Pure Metal/Album reviews
Tagged 42, Andy Prischenko, Captain Beefheart, Cthulhu Rise, Frank Zappa, free form jazz, HP Hovercraft, improv, Ivan Serdyuk, jazz, Jazz rock, Kiev rock bands, King Crimson, mathcore, metal, moog synthesizer, Musea records, prog, review, riffs, Robert Fripp, Stanislav Bobritskiy, Trout Mask Replica, Yury Demirskiy
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Album review: I SEE HAWKS IN L.A. – Mystery Drug
Blue Rose Records [Release date: 01.05.13] Alt-country outfit I See Hawks In L.A. are “dabblers” says their guitarist Paul Lacques. “There really are about 20 different ways to chop up country roots music”, he adds, while singer Rob Waller summarizes … Continue reading
Album review: RUBEN HOEKE BAND – Loaded
Dimensions records [Release date: 23.03.13] Dutch Guitarist Ruben Hoeke is firmly established as both a guitarist in his own right as well as a high profile interviewer, radio presenter and festival booker. His guitar chops are certainly evidence on ‘Loaded’, … Continue reading
Album review: STATUS QUO – Bula Quo
Fourth Chord Records/Warners (2CD) [Release date 10.06.13] Status Quo have gone silver screen in Kiss fashion with a film Bula Quo, shot in Fiji, with the band playing themselves. The film’s soundtrack (disc 1) features 9 new tracks and kicks … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Bula Quo, review, rock, soundtrack, Status Quo
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Quick plays: MARC RING, LENKA, THE PROWLERS
MARC RING – The Long Road Home www.marc-ring.co.uk Marc Ring was previously a member of folk rockers Jasper (who have recently had a re-issue campaign through Angel Air) and Good Thinking, who released a comeback album back in 2011. For … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Good Thinking, Jasper, Lenka, Marc Ring, power metal, review, rock, THE PROWLERS
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Album review: SNOWFALL – Cold Silence
Escape Music www.escape-music.com Norwegian band formed from the ashes of Winter Parade and they feature Tore Meli (guitars/keys), ‘PB’ Riise (bass/keys) and Coldspell’s drummer Perra Johnson, who has also recently appeared on the Love Under Fire album. … Continue reading
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Tagged Cold Silence, Coldspell, Escape Music, Lee Small, Shy, SNOWFALL
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Album review: JAMES COTTON – Cotton Mouth Man
Alligator records [Release date: 06.05.13] Grammy award winning Chicago blues-harp legend James Cotton is back! Well he’s never really been away, but ill health robbed him of his vocals making it all the more remarkable that ‘Cotton Mouth Man’ is … Continue reading
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Tagged Alligator Records, blues, blues harp, blues rock, Buddy Guy, Chicago Blues, Chuck Leavell, Cotton Mouth Man, Darrell Nulisch, Delbert McClinton, Glenn Worf, Grammy award winner, Gregg Allman, James Cotton, Joe Bonamassa, Keb Mo, Muddy Waters, review, Rob McNelley, Ruthie Foster, shuffle, Tom Hambridge, Warren Haynes
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Album review: PETER GREEN SPLINTER GROUP – The Very Best Of
Snapper Music (double CD) Peter Green was a founding member of Fleetwood Mac (having previously been in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) and he was a key driver in that band’s early blues rock sound. He left Fleetwood Mac in 1970 due … Continue reading
Album review: ARTLANTICA – Across the Seven Seas
SPV www.spv.de (released 24th May) New band in name, although they have morphed out of Angel of Eden who released a cracking album ‘The End Of Never’. That line-up featured former Royal Hunt vocalist John West, … Continue reading
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Tagged Across the Seven Seas, Album ARTLANTICA
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Album review: THE JAN HOLBERG PROJECT – Sense Of Time, At Your Service
Sense Of Time (2011) Norwegian bassist Jan Holberg has a good philosophy outlined in his liner notes to 2011′s ‘Sense Of Time’: that with music there should be no boundaries. So in his first ‘solo’ venture he explores AOR and … Continue reading
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Tagged Age Sten Nilsen, album, At Your Service, funk, fusion, Jan Holberg Project, Joe Lynn Turner, Rainbow, review, rock, Sense Of Time, Tony Carey, Wig Wam
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Album review: TRUCKER DIABLO – Songs Of Iron
Ripple Music [Release date – 13.05.13] Back in December 2011 Trucker Diablo’s first album ‘The Devil Rhythm’ dropped onto my door mat ripe for review. After listening to said disc my one issue with the album was that it had … Continue reading
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Tagged album, CD, metal, Northern Ireland, review, rock, Songs Of Iron, Trucker Diablo
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Album review: JOHN NICKOLOFF – Get Out Of My Way
Independent/TSM [Release date: 02.05.13] John Nickoloff opens his debut 5 track EP/CD ‘Get Out Of My Way’ with hard rock pretensions but gradually moves towards radio friendly MOR material. Either way he’s got a great rock voice that effortlessly brings … Continue reading
Album review: SWEETKENNY – Jennifer’s Box Of Junk
Waterfall Records/TSM [Release date: 2013] ‘Jennifer’s Box of Junk’ is both a title and concept. As song writer/ guitarist Kenny Sutton explains: ‘each song had to be something you would put in a box of junk’. Make of that what … Continue reading
Album review: GASTRIC BAND – Party Feel
Armellodie Records [Release date: 03.06.13] With a line up comprising two drummers and three guitarists with additional synths, loops, samples and percussion, Scotland’s awfully titled Gastric Band are clearly not your ordinary beat combo. Party Feel is anything but an … Continue reading
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Tagged Armellodie recrds, Bruce Wallace, Cameron Cullen, Craig Macfadyen, Eno, experimental, Frank Zappa, free form, fusion, Gastric Band, guitar keyboards, Jack weir, Jazz rock, loops, Man, modulation, Party Feel, prog rock, review, Ricki Thomson, Robert Fripp, Ross McPherson, samples, Scottish band, soundscapes, syncalvier, synths
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Album review: VIRGIL & THE ACCELERATORS – Live at Marshall 31/8/12
Mystic Records [Release date: 29.04.13] One of the hardest working and talented young kick ass rock-blues bands on the circuit, Virgil & The Accelerators are like a lightning bolt out of the starting block. Having shown their raw ability in … Continue reading
Album review: FRANCESCO MARRAS – Black Sheep
Independent Screaming Shadows guitarist Francesco Marras’s debut solo album has enough dazzling shredding and a sense of spontaneity to gives it crossover appeal to Vai, Malmsteen and Satriani fans. But you sense that the triumvirate’s collective musical palette has already … Continue reading
Album review: THE BLACK MARBLES – Made In Concrete
TBM productions/New Music [Release date: 08.03.13] Described as ‘a mix of swag, groove, energy, heart & soul with their own take on rock ‘n’ roll’, 70’s influenced Swedish rockers The Black Marbles wear their retro influences on their sleeve in a … Continue reading
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Tagged Axl Rose, Bad Company, classic rock, Free, hard rock, Kaj Paxeus, Keith Richards, Krister Selander, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul Rogers, Philip Karlsson, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant, Rolling Stones, Swedish rock, The Black Marbles, Tobbe Bovik
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Album review: BELIEVE – The Warmest Sun In Winter
Metal Mind Productions www.metalmind.com.pl Poland is hotbed for progressive rock, being a lucrative touring circuit for overseas bands and then producing some fine bands of their own like Riverside, Satellite and Believe. This is the band’s fifth album and the … Continue reading
Album review: MOON BIRD – Signs of Illusion
Kwinch Music/TSM [Release date:04.13] Moon Bird is a great name for a band that revels in layered sounds, sweeping melodies and David Gilmour style progressions. ‘Signs Of Illusion’ is probably too derivative to break new ground, but given … Continue reading
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Tagged album, Daryl Lynch, guitar, Jim Kwiecinski, keyboards, Moon Bird, Pink Floyd, prog rock, progressive, review, soundcapes, synths
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